Well, well, well. If it isn’t the most marmite album in existence. The album everybody loves to hate, St. Anger, turns 20 years old this year and the legacy it’s left behind is anything but appealing. Its entire existence is a running joke for METALLICA fans and haters alike, with many citing that the snare drum is the worst thing to ever happen to the band. But why does everybody love to hate it so much?
The easy answer is that it’s different. Moving away from the thrashy style that made die-hard fans fall in love with METALLICA, St. Anger instead chose to reject their signature approach. Forgoing guitar solos and opting for a raw production style and metallic drum sound, it was extremely experimental, especially for a band that had already had seven hugely successful albums and reaped success from them. When asked about the absence of guitar solos, Kirk Hammett (guitar) simply told Blabbermouth, “We wanted to preserve the sound of all four of us in a room just jamming. We tried to put guitar solos on, but we kept on running into this problem; it really sounded like an afterthought.”
It’s time to address the gigantic divisive elephant in the room; the snare. Ask anyone about the album and you will most definitely be met with a statement about it and how awful it is – only the minority believe it’s not actually that bad. Just for those among us who have no idea just how Lars Ulrich (drums) managed to get his snare sound, here is a brief explanation: the cracking snare sound comes from the springs that rest at the bottom of the drum and Ulrich decided against using them, resulting in a drum tone with more of a dull ring that usual. Ulrich stated to Blabbermouth; “One day I forgot to turn the snare on because I wasn’t thinking about this stuff. At the playbacks, I decided I was really liking what I was hearing – it had a different ambience. It sang back to me in a beautiful way.”
Beautiful is an interesting word to use to describe it, but it doesn’t explain why the vast majority can’t let it go after 20 years. Simply, they used an experimental sound and it just didn’t work as they had hoped. But ultimately, this is METALLICA we’re talking about – they are one of the few bands that can get away with trying it because they know that they will still have their loyal listeners waiting at every turn for their redemption.
The raw unpolished production adds to the depths of the emotions that the band felt during the two years they recorded St. Anger, shaking up the way the industry looked at production values and how they sound themselves. It has the raw sound of a garage band getting together to write groovy speed metal, not the polished sound that the industry and audiences are so used to. Instead, we are presented with anger and aggression that is conveyed through each track with a frantic nature and violent attacking.
To fully understand St. Anger and the decisions made during its production, you must understand that it is an album born of hardship. The album was already doomed before it could even begin, with Jason Newstead (bass) leaving the band and citing a range of private and personal issues for his departure. While they found a temporary replacement in the form of producer Bob Rock, the band still chose to pursue a new bassist during their time in the studio – why not make an already stressful and busy situation even more so, right? Thankfully, we were all blessed with the introduction of Rob Trujillo (bass) to the fold – a true blessing in disguise.
The writing process for St. Anger was anything but easy. The now infamous documentary Some Kind Of Monster (2004) gives us an insight into what it was like to be at such a pivotal moment in the band’s career that could make or break them. As much as it feels a little more This Is Spinal Tap (1984) at times, it gives us an insight into the world of METALLICA. Tensions were evidently at an all-time high as documented between the constant clashing of heads between James Hetfield (guitar/vocals) and Ulrich, the pair seeming to disagree over each small detail.
Possibly the most influential event to impact the recording process came in July 2001, when Hetfield entered rehab for alcoholism and other undisclosed addictions. When returning to the band in December of that year, he would only be allowed to work on the album from noon to 4PM. This paired with the ongoing struggles within the band forced the band to hire personal enhancement coach, Phil Towle. This event had a clear influence on the album’s content, with Hetfield himself stating that the turmoil and passion surrounding those two years and his rehabilitation had an influence on subject matter and lyricism. “There’s two years of condensed emotion in this. We’ve gone through a lot of personal changes, struggles, epiphanies, it’s deep. It’s so deep lyrically and musically.” he would tell Blabbermouth.
St. Anger is not a perfect album by any means, dividing critics across the board with extremely polarising views. It continues to do the same, with so many professionals and fans alike questioning its place in rock history. It’s one of those albums which will always stir up a conversation among metal fans and it’s usually all down to that snare that has become the summoning call to so many. The best words to describe the choices made during St. Anger’s production come from Hetfield himself as he told Guitar World: “There are things I would like to change on some of the records, but it gives them so much character that you can’t change them… St. Anger could use a little less tin snare drum, but those things are what make those records part of our history.”
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